For the past several decades, the popularity of outdoor sports has increased participation in activities that require protective body padding. Especially among 5-15 year olds, sports activities such as on-road and off-road biking, roller blading, roller skating, skateboarding, boogie boarding, surfing, and windsurfing, and the injuries attendant thereto, have revealed that these sports do indeed involve falls and collisions and that a variety of serious injuries including bumps and abrasions can result from such accidents. Furthermore, more conventional sports such as baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer and the like also require body protective devices.
Nevertheless, many existing body protection devices cannot be articulated in response to movement of body joints to reflect the patterns of motion of the various sports. Moreover, conventional protective body devices do not permit the escape of heat or moisture from the skin. As a result, the wearer becomes uncomfortably warm, and the padding in the devices becomes saturated with sweat. This becomes especially important when it is appreciated that over 40% of the body is covered by protective padding during contact sports such as football.
In addition, many young people will not wear conventional body protective devices because such padding is not fashionable, is unattractive or is uncomfortable.